KABUL - Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Noor on Thursday rejected allegations leveled against him by the Junbish-i-Milli Islami political party, accusing him of grasping all powers into his own hands in the northern province.
Noor, while commenting about the allegations on his Facebook account, wrote: “Recently some baseless allegations have been leveled against me regarding the administration structure of Balkh province, which could be rejected after the release of these documents.”
Noor alleged Junbish party-led by First Vice President Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum had taken all powers into its hand in some provinces.
He further said: “As everyone knows Balkh is a province where remarkable development has taken place. The province has a peaceful environment where people from different ethnic groups are living peacefully and there is equal distribution of power and resources among different ethnic groups.”
Releasing names of key position holders in Balkh administration, Noor said the list was witness to the fact that every segment of the society had been given representation in the government. “This sort of equality cannot be seen in Jawzjan and Faryab provinces where both of the governors belong to Junbish-i-Milli Islami.”
Noor’s spokesman Munir Ahmad Farhad said the purpose of Noor’s comments was to clear people’s minds regarding different allegations leveled against him in recent past.
But Bashir Ahmad Tahyanj, spokesman of the Junbish party, in reaction to Noor’s comments said: “According to our information about the list of 500 individuals, no balance has been considered among different ethnic groups regarding key government posts.”
He said the non-serious attitude of the Balkh government against individuals who brought down pictures of Gen. Dostum showed power had been centralized in Balkh. (Pajhwok)